The legislature also entitles excepted federal government employees to use furloughs during a lapse in appropriations, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.
“[T]he President signed… the ‘Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019,’ which requires the compensation of government employees for wages lost, work performed, or leave used during a lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018,” the statement said on Wednesday.
Last Friday marked the first missed paycheck for more than 800,000 federal government workers, about half of whom have worked without pay since the shutdown began 22 December, with the remainder sent home.
Trump argues that a wall is needed at a time when border officials are reportedly blocking more than 60,000 illegal aliens from entering the United States each month. In turn, Democrats claim that physical barriers are ineffective and that Trump has engineered a fake crisis for political gain.